Critics Adult Film Association

The Critics Adult Film Association (CAFA) was a New York-based group of East Coast adult sex film critics, which bestowed awards upon those working in pornographic film during the 1980s. The awards were first presented in 1981, honoring the movies of the previous year. Talk Dirty to Me, a sex comedy starring John Leslie, who won Best Actor, was voted best film of 1980. Samantha Fox was the first Best Actress, winning for her role in This Lady Is A Tramp, another sex comedy.

The CAFA and Adult Film Association of America awards were considered the major adult film awards of the Golden Age of Porn. By 1985, sex news magazine Cheri declared: "Held at the Silver Lining, a snazzy little bistro on the West Side's Restaurant Row, the fifth-annual Critics Adult Film Awards was a gentle reminder that porn films can be measured against standards other than the Peter Meter."[3]

The seventh CAFA Awards were presented May 27, 1987 in Manhattan.[4] The association seems to have faded away after that, as did the New York-based adult film industry, overtaken by the X-Rated Critics Organization and its Heart-On Awards, which had first been presented two years earlier and which were based in California, the new centre of porn production.

In 1986 all three awards programs chose the same Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.[5]

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The trophies were called the Critics Adult Film Award and each was inscribed with the year the award was being given for, on a gold-plated round icon with decorative edges on a wooden base.[6]

In 1987, Cinema Blue magazine described the voting as a two-stage process: "CAFA President Jack Shugg and officers Steffani Martin, Colette Connor and Will H. Jarvis, aided and abetted by the members of CAFA...mail out two ballots to the New York porn critics. On the first ballot, the critics make five choices for best movies and performers in each category. (This year, any film or video released between January 1, 1986 and February 28, 1987 was eligible.) The ballots are then mailed back and the officers and their assistants count them. The choices with the most votes are then listed on a second ballot and again mailed to the critics who make one final choice in each category. These votes are once again tabulated and the movie or performer in each category with the most votes becomes the winner."[4]

Winners are listed below by the year in which the awards presentation was held, not by year the award was for, which was the previous year.

Like the Academy Awards, CAFA also honored the best in various production categories. For example, at the awards show held in 1985, Every Woman Has a Fantasy scooped up cinematography and music awards, Raw Talent polished off top honors for editing prowess and Sandy Amsterdam's production design and Talk DIrty to Me III netted make-up and costuming kudos for Traci Lords' mermaid tail.[3]

^1 There is a discrepancy as to which movie(s) Tom Byron won for in 1985. Cheri magazine states "He managed to walk off with Best Actor (for Sister Dearest) and Best Supporting Actor (Talk Dirty To Me III)".[3] Internet Adult Film Database founder Peter Van Aarle lists Private Teacher as his Best Actor win and Sister Dearest as his Best Supporting Actor award.[7]

^2 In the book The X-Rated Videotape Guide II, author Robert Rimmer states, "In May 1987, the CAFA (a New York film critics group) gave Snake Eyes II awards for Best Script (Anne Randall), Best Actor (Jerry Butler, who also received it for the original Snake Eyes), and Best Director (Cecil Howard)."[15] However, this seems unlikely as Snake Eyes II was not released until 1987[16][17] and it contradicts two other sources that list Butler and Howard winning in 1987 for Star Angel and no category called Best Script.[4][8] Possibly Snake Eyes II won the following year, however, there doesn't seem to be a record of whether any awards were held in 1988.